ESPN makes changes to broadcasting crew

ESPN announced a few minor changes to its broadcast crew for the upcoming NASCAR season.

What WON'T change, though, are the announcers in the booth for Sprint Cup races: Dr. Jerry Punch will remain as lead analyst with Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree.

Here are the changes:

# Marty Reid. He will take over as lead announcer (replacing Punch) for the Nationwide broadcasts for much of the second half of the season when ESPN/ABC broadcasts the final 17 Cup races of the year. The move gives Punch the Nationwide races off at that point. That's only for those final 17 races, so you'll still see Punch in the first half of the year on most of the Nationwide broadcasts. Reid had done some Nationwide stuff for ESPN along with the Indy car series.

# Vince Welch. He will become one of ESPN's four primary pit reporters in 2009. He will work all of ESPN's Sprint Cup races in the second half of the season along with multiple Nationwide gigs on the ESPN family of networks throughout the season. He has worked on Indy car events as a pit reporter.

# Mike Massaro, a pit reporter the past two years, is moving up to be a host of "NASCAR Now.'' He'll share duties with Allen Bestwick and Nicole Manske. Bestwick will continue to host the Monday roundtable, while Manske and Massaro will share primary hosts duties on a rotating basis. Massaro will still work the pits for select Nationwide events.

That's it. So, why the moves? This gives Punch the Nationwide races off at the end of the year so he's not doing two jobs when the No. 1 job is putting together the best possible Cup broadcast (ratings have dropped for some Chase races the last couple of years). This gives Reid a chance to do more NASCAR stuff and maybe work up to replacing Punch if a change is needed or Punch wants to make a change. Massaro gets a promotion and opens the door for Welch.

The rest of the ESPN lineup remains intact. Dave Burns, Jamie Little and Shannon Spake return as pit reporters. Tim Brewer will continue to work out of the ESPN tech center. Bestwick will continue to host the pre-race show with analysts Rusty Wallace and Brad Daugherty. Ray Evernham will join the show for select races.

ESPN's "NASCAR Now'' returns Feb. 2.

ESPN's first race is the Nationwide race from Daytona on Feb. 14.

So,  what do you think of the changes?

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